So I’ve seen many opinions on this but I don’t know for sure, many have said kanji by itself is useless while others say it makes vocabulary easier.. ? Which one should I be prioritizing 😭
I think it’s more effective to learn kanji in context via vocabulary first, as you can pick up the meanings of the individual kanji along the way. But learning each kanji individually and without any vocabulary will make it more difficult to remember the various readings or any real life application of what you’re learning
“I’ve seen many opinions on this but I don’t know for sure”
You will never know for sure until you try for yourself. Start learning vocabulary and see if you can do it without individual kanji study or not.
Because what works to what degree is personal. The bottom line is that only words are readable. Period, full stop. However, learning kanji individually may help with learning vocab. The degree to which it works is not only going to differ from person to person but it will also change over time for anyone. Others cannot read your mind. Try. Measure. Adjust as needed. You will not break yourself by failing to pick a mythical perfect balance from the beginning, I promise.
Like most aspects of language learning, which is more effective is going to be based on YOU, and it’s likely to evolve as you go.
For me, I had difficulty getting my brain to remember ANY kanji when I was learning vocab. I went so far as to have a firefox plugin that 変hanged 毎very 一irst 文etter into kanji. No dice. Never learned any of them.
So I tried RTK (actually the free version Kanji Damage)
It taught me by building up little stories.
女 = woman
子 = child
女+子 = 好 = like (a *woman* **likes** her *child*)
Or like 毎 (every) is comprised of 人 (man) and 母 (mother) “**every** *man* has a *mother*”
This was the only thing that started making kanji click. The modern app for this method is Wanikani.
Once Kanji clicked I found myself needing the website and stories less and less and was picking up kanji easier and easier. Eventually I switched to learning Kanji along with new vocab.
So now there’s words I learned first, with the Kanji coming second… words like
Chair = isu = 椅子
Son = musuko = 息子
And words that I learned WITH Kanji
現代 (gendai) modern era
字幕 (jimaku) subtitles
It’s totally OK, and kind of expected, to start with 1 method and move to another eventually. It’s all about working with what and how your brain works best.
It’s a bit of a catch 22. You need vocab to make sense of a Kanji, but you need Kanji to read the vocab.
If learning Kanji as individual symbols is fun for you then go for it! But learning Kanji by learning a word that contains said Kanji is usually considered to be “the way”.
It also depends on the Kanji. Some are immediately useful and have a clear individual meaning. Others only work in combination and never form a word on their own. So, don’t be afraid to switch study methods as you progress to more complex Kanji.
In the end its up to the individual and what they consider beneficial towards their learning…..I personally studied JLPT kanji every day for 4 hours for about a year and a couple of months….and for me it made a world of a difference in the end….it feels like there’s basically nothing I cant read so it made looking up words I dont know that much easier and reading more enjoyable (of course, I still keep coming across new kanji not in the JLPT but those often have furigana and the ones that dont I just look it up via writing in kanji lookup, but that rarely happens)
No. I do it because I love it, no other reason is necessary.
If you hate it then don’t
It only make the process more easier but it’s gonna cost time in exchange. Example: RTK cost two months.
The problem with studying kanji in isolation **as a beginner** is that you don’t know what information is important. Which readings do you learn, which are the most frequently used readings, which are the most commonly used meanings, are the components meaningful, is it important to remember which component is the radical…???
In addition to that, some words containing kanji don’t relate to meanings of those kanji, and some don’t even use any of the readings of those kanji! So knowing the kanji won’t always help with understanding the word [nor with knowing how it is pronounced](https://youtu.be/exkXaVYvb68) (*although it does help with a lot of words*).
**Learning words first introduces you to all the kanji and readings you need – because you will learn all the words you need as you come across them.** (*but do take a quick look at the kanji in the words you learn – to get some brief familiarity with them*).
Later, if you have a specific need (such as hand writing) or interest, then you can go back and study kanji in more depth. They should appear as recognizable friends by that stage.
people have their opinions on it and tend to just recommend what they did
since some people recommend either approach, it makes sense that both could possibly work
the question then is which is faster, and frankly we don’t really know, people don’t link to a rigorous scientific discussion in these threads
so try both and see what you like
Well if you want to be able to read, yes. If you just want to communicate by speaking, you can get by without it. (I did so on very limited kanji knowledge) However, it does make vocab easier to learn. But you do need to learn it side by side with vocab and practice sentences.
Personally, I think there needs to be a balance between studying individual kanji and vocabulary words.
If you’re just starting out and know less than 2000+ words, it’s best to just expand your vocabulary. But the intermediate stages are where you should start isolating kanji and studying their various components. Don’t try to memorize their individual pronunciations, because you’ll acquire that naturally through studying vocabulary.
But if you improve your ability to identify individual kanji and their meaning, it’ll be much easier to decipher more advanced kanji compounds you’ll come across in the future.
Most people I know who got to a good level just did words, maybe with some kanji study at the start to help distinguish appearance better.
I think even the people who advocate for learning the kanji in isolation (like myself with rtk 1) started off with memorizing kanji compounds at first.
Hands down – Learning the Kanji by “keyword” (since many single Kanji are words in their own right) with something like RTK and retaining it with SRS is going to make your life so much easier in the long run. It will not make sense if you are planning to stop learning around N5, N4 or N3 level, or even N2 level. Some Kanji I only know the keyword for which is their main word – and it really shows its strength well beyond N1 level.
Learning 30-50 Kanji a day is often times going to be giving you 15-30 new words in their own right and key parts for many dozens more. 風 is a Kanji which by itself has more than one “vocab card” and it is also used in tons of compounds. Knowing just 1 main meaning is a better starting point than just randomly grabbing vocab here and there. Since so many Kanji are used in various compounds, RTK keywords are really very useful in learning hundreds of words passively in a deliberate way.
15 comments
I think it’s more effective to learn kanji in context via vocabulary first, as you can pick up the meanings of the individual kanji along the way. But learning each kanji individually and without any vocabulary will make it more difficult to remember the various readings or any real life application of what you’re learning
“I’ve seen many opinions on this but I don’t know for sure”
You will never know for sure until you try for yourself. Start learning vocabulary and see if you can do it without individual kanji study or not.
Because what works to what degree is personal. The bottom line is that only words are readable. Period, full stop. However, learning kanji individually may help with learning vocab. The degree to which it works is not only going to differ from person to person but it will also change over time for anyone. Others cannot read your mind. Try. Measure. Adjust as needed. You will not break yourself by failing to pick a mythical perfect balance from the beginning, I promise.
Like most aspects of language learning, which is more effective is going to be based on YOU, and it’s likely to evolve as you go.
For me, I had difficulty getting my brain to remember ANY kanji when I was learning vocab. I went so far as to have a firefox plugin that 変hanged 毎very 一irst 文etter into kanji. No dice. Never learned any of them.
So I tried RTK (actually the free version Kanji Damage)
It taught me by building up little stories.
女 = woman
子 = child
女+子 = 好 = like (a *woman* **likes** her *child*)
Or like 毎 (every) is comprised of 人 (man) and 母 (mother) “**every** *man* has a *mother*”
This was the only thing that started making kanji click. The modern app for this method is Wanikani.
Once Kanji clicked I found myself needing the website and stories less and less and was picking up kanji easier and easier. Eventually I switched to learning Kanji along with new vocab.
So now there’s words I learned first, with the Kanji coming second… words like
Chair = isu = 椅子
Son = musuko = 息子
And words that I learned WITH Kanji
現代 (gendai) modern era
字幕 (jimaku) subtitles
It’s totally OK, and kind of expected, to start with 1 method and move to another eventually. It’s all about working with what and how your brain works best.
It’s a bit of a catch 22. You need vocab to make sense of a Kanji, but you need Kanji to read the vocab.
If learning Kanji as individual symbols is fun for you then go for it! But learning Kanji by learning a word that contains said Kanji is usually considered to be “the way”.
It also depends on the Kanji. Some are immediately useful and have a clear individual meaning. Others only work in combination and never form a word on their own. So, don’t be afraid to switch study methods as you progress to more complex Kanji.
In the end its up to the individual and what they consider beneficial towards their learning…..I personally studied JLPT kanji every day for 4 hours for about a year and a couple of months….and for me it made a world of a difference in the end….it feels like there’s basically nothing I cant read so it made looking up words I dont know that much easier and reading more enjoyable (of course, I still keep coming across new kanji not in the JLPT but those often have furigana and the ones that dont I just look it up via writing in kanji lookup, but that rarely happens)
No. I do it because I love it, no other reason is necessary.
If you hate it then don’t
It only make the process more easier but it’s gonna cost time in exchange. Example: RTK cost two months.
The problem with studying kanji in isolation **as a beginner** is that you don’t know what information is important. Which readings do you learn, which are the most frequently used readings, which are the most commonly used meanings, are the components meaningful, is it important to remember which component is the radical…???
In addition to that, some words containing kanji don’t relate to meanings of those kanji, and some don’t even use any of the readings of those kanji! So knowing the kanji won’t always help with understanding the word [nor with knowing how it is pronounced](https://youtu.be/exkXaVYvb68) (*although it does help with a lot of words*).
**Learning words first introduces you to all the kanji and readings you need – because you will learn all the words you need as you come across them.** (*but do take a quick look at the kanji in the words you learn – to get some brief familiarity with them*).
Later, if you have a specific need (such as hand writing) or interest, then you can go back and study kanji in more depth. They should appear as recognizable friends by that stage.
people have their opinions on it and tend to just recommend what they did
since some people recommend either approach, it makes sense that both could possibly work
the question then is which is faster, and frankly we don’t really know, people don’t link to a rigorous scientific discussion in these threads
so try both and see what you like
Well if you want to be able to read, yes. If you just want to communicate by speaking, you can get by without it. (I did so on very limited kanji knowledge) However, it does make vocab easier to learn. But you do need to learn it side by side with vocab and practice sentences.
Personally, I think there needs to be a balance between studying individual kanji and vocabulary words.
If you’re just starting out and know less than 2000+ words, it’s best to just expand your vocabulary. But the intermediate stages are where you should start isolating kanji and studying their various components. Don’t try to memorize their individual pronunciations, because you’ll acquire that naturally through studying vocabulary.
But if you improve your ability to identify individual kanji and their meaning, it’ll be much easier to decipher more advanced kanji compounds you’ll come across in the future.
Most people I know who got to a good level just did words, maybe with some kanji study at the start to help distinguish appearance better.
I think even the people who advocate for learning the kanji in isolation (like myself with rtk 1) started off with memorizing kanji compounds at first.
Hands down – Learning the Kanji by “keyword” (since many single Kanji are words in their own right) with something like RTK and retaining it with SRS is going to make your life so much easier in the long run. It will not make sense if you are planning to stop learning around N5, N4 or N3 level, or even N2 level. Some Kanji I only know the keyword for which is their main word – and it really shows its strength well beyond N1 level.
Learning 30-50 Kanji a day is often times going to be giving you 15-30 new words in their own right and key parts for many dozens more. 風 is a Kanji which by itself has more than one “vocab card” and it is also used in tons of compounds. Knowing just 1 main meaning is a better starting point than just randomly grabbing vocab here and there. Since so many Kanji are used in various compounds, RTK keywords are really very useful in learning hundreds of words passively in a deliberate way.